Someone on one of the ESPN shows brought up a good point, similar to what you are saying. We should be playing a more base formation, and introducing these concepts. Not starting at the final product and just wishing it would work, especially if we don't have the depth at the crucial positions to make it work. We have to win the center of the pitch to have any success.

I don't subscribe to the thought that Berhalter doesn't know what he is doing, or is a poor manager though. We'll see where I stand in a year though. I think he is going to have to change his plan somewhat, as you just get way less time with the players at the national level compared to the club level

PatAg said:

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Someone on one of the ESPN shows brought up a good point, similar to what you are saying. We should be playing a more base formation, and introducing these concepts. Not starting at the final product and just wishing it would work, especially if we don't have the depth at the crucial positions to make it work. We have to win the center of the pitch to have any success.

I don't subscribe to the thought that Berhalter doesn't know what he is doing, or is a poor manager though. We'll see where I stand in a year though. I think he is going to have to change his plan somewhat, as you just get way less time with the players at the national level compared to the club level

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This was my point all along. You don't come in, initiate a new system, AND experiment with players out of position. It's too much at once. There's no way you can evaluate what's working or not because maybe it's the tactic, or maybe it was because players were out of position.

If Berhalter has been here for a couple years and was using this as a wrinkle to spice up his base set, great. OR If he'd taken the time to evaluate Adams at CM/DM and then after a few games decided to experiment at RB to build depth/different look at that position, great. Bottom line: He simply tried to do too much too quickly.

The one game we actually tried it with Adams, it did actually work. So disappointing that he won't be playing this gold cup. The cynic in me thinks this is a scheme by the ussf

Adams is a stud, so of course it worked

But would it have gone even better if we'd had him next to McKinney and had Yedlin at RB?

Maybe I'm just too conservative, but I would've liked to see GB and the team gel before tinkering.

Moot point now, I suppose, but I'm not optimistic about the GB regime. Hopefully he can prove me wrong over the next few weeks.

I would actually prefer someone push Yedlin out of the lineup, or he continues to develop obviously. Right now he's somewhat one dimensional, speed based but not very good service/passing imo.

Pahdz said:

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Anyone who's answer to who was the worst player wasn't Bornstein GTFO

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I'm sorry man but I'll never forgive Jeff Agoos for getting beat by every single player that tried to dribble by him and also hitting the hardest own goal in the history of own goals when we played Portugal.

texagbeliever said:

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Um what. Yedlin is one of the first 3 names on the team when fit. He has speed, is good in possession, has heart and can play a good pass (but not world class in service). I want someone challenging for pretty much every other position besides CAM for the USMNT.

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I just know what I see when I watch him play. I'm not implying he is bad, but it's not close to thinking we can't upgrade there either.

PatAg said:

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texagbeliever said:

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Um what. Yedlin is one of the first 3 names on the team when fit. He has speed, is good in possession, has heart and can play a good pass (but not world class in service). I want someone challenging for pretty much every other position besides CAM for the USMNT.

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I just know what I see when I watch him play. I'm not implying he is bad, but it's not close to thinking we can't upgrade there either.

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He's definitely an attacking fullback. His defensive skills are very lacking but I do think he has a place if we have some really good CBs and wingers that track back.

Do we have those? I guess we'll find out next week.

OregonAggie said:

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Pahdz said:

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Anyone who's answer to who was the worst player wasn't Bornstein GTFO

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I'm sorry man but I'll never forgive Jeff Agoos for getting beat by every single player that tried to dribble by him and also hitting the hardest own goal in the history of own goals when we played Portugal.

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At least we still won that game

Well yeah everyone looks much better if the team around him is great. I could see the criticism that he is more of a wing back then full back but even that is being a bit picky. Every full back is either defense minded or offense minded. Any top class full back is offensive minded these days.

That's interesting. I think I read it on the mlsinsider, but one of their writers did a break down of the last 3 u20 teams and where they ply their trade. The trend is in a good direction

Is it about winning, or is is building a team to qualify and compete in Qatar?

And are the 2 mutually exclusive?

The guy is just a buffoon.

What was he saying, not able to watch it until later

PatAg said:

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What was he saying, not able to watch it until later

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He's saying it's disappointing we didn't win and our goal is to win the Gold Cup.

deadbq03 said:

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FWIW, Yedlin is 5th most valuable American according to Transfermarkt.

While I was there, I noticed something encouraging regarding US development:

There are 67 US players worth more than $1MM... of those, a whopping 44 of them hold dual citizenship (meaning that they had access to foreign youth programs). That's obviously not the good news...

The good news is this: amongst this same pool of million dollar players, there are 11 players aged 21 or under... 5 of them are dual-citizens and 6 are US-only.

Not sure what these numbers were like a few years ago... would be interesting to follow this over time.

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I wouldnt put all of that down to "access to development." Another likely factor is that a mediocre player with a European passport is more valuable than an equivalent mediocre player without one just on that basis alone. There is automatically less demand for a US only player because there are fewer clubs and fewer roster spots available for that kind of player whereas an EU player pretty much could get signed by any club who found him to be an interesting player.

Hopefully, someday in the very near future, we can make it easier for our players to move to England/Europe

I Am Mine said:

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PatAg said:

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What was he saying, not able to watch it until later

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He's saying it's disappointing we didn't win and our goal is to win the Gold Cup.

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I'll say this, if he comes out and says "This is about developing for the next cycle of world cup qualifying" a lot of the same people would crucify him for not trying to win the Gold Cup. I mean media people, not this board.

Listening to the whole interview, and not a segment, he was more talking about the mindset he wants the players in.

So developing to qualify for the World Cup and winning the Gold Cup ARE mutually exclusive?

I Am Mine said:

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So developing to qualify for the World Cup and winning the Gold Cup ARE mutually exclusive?

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I Am Mine said:

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So developing to qualify for the World Cup and winning the Gold Cup ARE mutually exclusive?

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I dont think so. I dont have a problem with what he said.

JJxvi said:

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deadbq03 said:

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FWIW, Yedlin is 5th most valuable American according to Transfermarkt.

While I was there, I noticed something encouraging regarding US development:

There are 67 US players worth more than $1MM... of those, a whopping 44 of them hold dual citizenship (meaning that they had access to foreign youth programs). That's obviously not the good news...

The good news is this: amongst this same pool of million dollar players, there are 11 players aged 21 or under... 5 of them are dual-citizens and 6 are US-only.

Not sure what these numbers were like a few years ago... would be interesting to follow this over time.

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I wouldnt put all of that down to "access to development." Another likely factor is that a mediocre player with a European passport is more valuable than an equivalent mediocre player without one just on that basis alone. There is automatically less demand for a US only player because there are fewer clubs and fewer roster spots available for that kind of player whereas an EU player pretty much could get signed by any club who found him to be an interesting player.

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Good point. I hadn't thought of them factoring that into their valuations. I'm not sure that's as big of a factor as it would've been in decades past. The Bundesliga for example isn't super restrictive anymore with foreign slots which is perhaps why US-only guys like Adams and McKinney are landing there... after they're 18.

But Pulisic as a dual-citizen was able to land there at 16. He counts that as a big factor, so I did too. Who knows how many duals take advantage of being able to go abroad like he did? I honestly don't know... I might be overestimating the impact. But even for those who don't go abroad, I think another factor is simply the mindset/attitude of the foreign family members toward development of their child. A kid with a dad, uncle, cousin who grew up playing soccer overseas is gonna get different kinds of mentorship than a US-only will.

Annnd Holmes is off after aggravating an injury to his quad. Apparently had made him miss the last month of his season as well.
Mihailovic takes his spot. He had a good first few appearances than stunk up the joint in the past two games. Might be an opportunity to show he can be better, still a younger player.

Leaves McKennie and Bradley as our best central mids. Might force Pulisic to play centrally

PatAg said:

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Annnd Holmes is off after aggravating an injury to his quad. Apparently had made him miss the last month of his season as well.
Mihailovic takes his spot. He had a good first few appearances than stunk up the joint in the past two games. Might be an opportunity to show he can be better, still a younger player.

Leaves McKennie and Bradley as our best central mids. Might force Pulisic to play centrally

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Dammit I was really looking forward to watching that kid. Good opportunity for Mihailovic to prove his worth and I'm pulling for him.


Do you think this increases our odds of seeing Trapp and Bradley on the field at the same time? My head might explode hahaha

How long unto lead or if ever do you guys see Pomykal in at CM?

If he had not just got done playing at the under-20 World Cup, he would be starting in this Gold Cup in my opinion. But they don't want to keep a young player like that from his club for the whole summer. Especially one who's so important to his team

Hahahahaha


I bet that's a helluva twitter follow

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